Researchers pinpoint spike protein regions as targets for passive and active COVID-19 vaccines
Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have identified regions of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that have relatively few mutations and might therefore serve as important targets for prophylactic agents against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
Drugs that target these “less variable” regions are more likely to be effective against future variants of SARS-CoV-2 because they remain unchanged or “conserved” as the virus mutates and evolves.
Daria Mochly-Rosen and colleagues identified the regions using a database of almost 190,000 individual virus sequences isolated from patients across the globe, thereby reflecting the natural evolution of the virus.